Darci WARD
Darci has been creative since childhood. After studying at advanced levels in high school, she pursued fine arts for the first two years of her undergraduate studies in Texas before transitioning to graphic design and relocating to Arizona, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. Her work continuously explores themes of humanity and the natural world, with a deep interest in how the two mirror one another while existing side by side.
Professionally, her work centers on website development and branding, but in her studio practice she focuses on raw materials and mixed media. During college, she interned with The Terra Gallery & Mural Mates, taught art classes for both children and adults, and operated her own mural company during the summers. After graduating, she worked as a display artist for Anthropologie under URBN Brands, where she refined and expanded her craft in a new medium.
She is currently based in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Connor.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always been curious about everything — especially the why and how of both humanity and the tangible world. I believe this curiosity is the root of my passion for creating. I have found divine light within the process of discovering what is true about these things. What makes the materiality of a human different from that of dust? Are we all, in some way, the same? Can a person change their true nature any more than the seasons can?
The more I study and behold the source of all life, the more I am drawn toward visual answers to the questions I have spent so many hours pondering. There is a theology to the beauty of a soul, just as there is a biology to the beauty of a flower.
My process is raw and physical like the earth. Hands covered in clay, flax and linen sewn into the canvas, charcoal on the floor. My product is soulful like that of mankind. Contrasting strokes of light and dark pigment wrestling across the canvas, a form familiar to your own flesh, a feeling frozen in place. I create to better understand the Creator and all of the people and things he's made.